It’s bigger news than it first seems: but eBay announced this week that it would soon be accepting Apple Pay on the marketplace. We wrote about that here. And it heralds the start of more options when it comes to eBay buyer payments.
It’s the latest step in a process that began just about three years ago when eBay and PayPal split up. Now, a few years down the line, eBay is getting more freedmen on payments and PayPal isn’t the be all and end all. Indeed, eBay wants to intermediate all payments themselves on the new Adyen system. And PayPal will no longer be compulsory or standard. That’s a huge opportunity. There is a strong case to be made that says PayPal has been holding eBay back. Especially in areas where PayPal isn’t ubiquitous.
The announcement about Apple Pay was made by Scott Cutler. He heads up the American business for eBay and we don’t often hear from him:
One of the steps we’re taking is improving checkout for our customers. Today, we announced that we will be accepting Apple Pay on the eBay app and mobile web when we begin to manage payments starting in the early fall. We know that in a mobile world, our customers want to make a purchase quickly on their devices. With Apple Pay, they will have one more payment option.
– Scott Cutler, Senior Vice President, Americas, eBay.
And whilst both the Apple Pay, and Square Capital deals are going to be initially only available to users in the United States (eBay remains resolutely focussed, perhaps to its detriment, on its ‘core’ market), the opportunity that exists when it comes to opening up buyer payments is predominantly one that will fuel growth in international spheres.
Other countries don’t accept PayPal with the same verve as is noticeable in the UK or USA. Indeed, Germany for one, isn’t particularly enthusiastic about it. And you don’t have to look much further afield to find places where it is scarcely used. Opening up payment methods for buyers could be a huge commercial possibility for eBay and make it a much more plausible player in some locales. They just need to grasp it and get a wiggle on. Apple Pay must be only a start. Will they ever take Amazon Payments?
